Lily Raff McCaulou is from Bend, Oregon, by way of Takoma Park, Maryland, and New York
City. She lives in Oregon with her famous dog, Sylvia, her fly-fishing husband,
Scott, and her likely soon to be famous son, Sam. Her first book has recently
been published, Call of the Mild, and
I suggest that you should read it and that you'll find it enjoyable. I did, but
not for the reasons you might think.

I don't
know Lily Raff but I did grow up with several folks that theoretically could be
related, as they were often referred to as Riff Raff. Not Riff Raff from Rocky
Horror or the evil anthropomorphic cartoon wolf gangster from Underdog, but the
more common variety. You should buy Lily's book not because she is a capable
writer (she is), not because you will agree with all of her views (I
certainly didn't), but because Lily Raff McCaulou has what many lack:
authenticity. Lily is honest about what she thinks, feels, and equally honest
about how she arrived at her views. One of the greatest qualities of hunter –
nonhunter communication is that there is so precious little of it. Those who
don't think they like, much less “approve” of hunting seldom understand why
they have the perspectives that they do. Likewise, the "live life
through goofy bumper-sticker" crowds as well as the "purple
home-defense zombie-killer" crowds marginalize themselves through
their own inability to articulate and communicate their values and their
feelings to others.

As to who
is “confused” about relationships with animals, that's the easiest question of
the day to answer: we all are. Lily mentions my favorite author on this
subject, Hal Herzog, in her book. While the sport of cock-fighting is repugnant
to most whether hunter, fisherman, or photographer, the life of the fighting
rooster is clearly superior to the McNuggets we feed our kids, or perhaps
ourselves. I don't know how hard you have to whack a chicken to grow McNuggets,
but it seems to me the nugget-producing whack sequence couldn't be considered
part of Mother Nature.

Lily
quite correctly observes that the notion of hunting is sadly political. Of
course it is, but what isn't? No one much cared that Sarah Palin went hunting
with her father when she was playing high school basketball. Nor did anyone
care when she was a sportscaster in Anchorage. No one cared when she was
elected to the Wasilla City Council or became Mayor of Wasilla. She became
Alaska's first female governor, and, at the age of 42, the youngest governor in
Alaskan history, the state's first governor to have been born after Alaska
achieved U.S. statehood. Hunting with Dad was no issue until the national stage
invented it as one.

To be
fair to Lily, her book is subtitled “A Memoir,” so it is neither strictly about
hunting, cooking our own meals, or restricted to anything specific. Parts of it
stray very, very far away and are intensely personal. I learned all I needed to
know about mushrooms from Grace Slick, so mushroom hunting, cross-country
skiing, lawnmowers, and baby rabbits are not exactly in the "learning to
hunt dinner" category.

Lily is a
very good observer; her adventure in what finally led to the purchase of a
Benelli Nova 20 gauge should required reading for any gunshop owner that cares
at all about customer service and more than a few firearm manufacturers could
learn from it as well. Lily is hardly wildly pro-hunting, much less pro-NRA,
but she explains why.

Part of
the human experience is invariably contradictory. We always give far greater
weight to what we personally see, hear, taste, and feel than what is warranted.
While we might lament the loss of the dinosaurs or perhaps the wooly mammoth,
it is more of a theoretical lament. Consider that Mickey Mouse, actually a
sleazy, somewhat creepy character originally (Steamboat Willie) was
heavily given the cute treatment. Walt Disney wanted Bambi to be true to life.
So, Disney had a pair of fawns shipped in from Maine. He instructed his artists
to watch carefully as an anatomist dissected the decaying carcass of a newborn
deer. The drawing originally produced by the Disney animators were lifelike,
but found to be not nearly cute enough to pull at the heart-strings of the
public. As a result, the Disney artists were told to make Bambi cute, far cuter
than life. It is, by now, the standard process of making the head bigger and
adding abnormally large eyes. Bambi's muzzle was shortened, all adding up to a
tragic distortion of Nature for commercial and entertainment purposes.

While
saving animals from extinction sounds good, only the really cute animals easily
get the funding-- like the Giant Panda. With a large head, small eyes and dark
and wrinkly skin, the critically endangered Chinese giant salamander gets no
such love. Lily Raff McCaulou isn't immune from irrationality, none of us are,
an example from Lily would be the plight of the California Condor.

A notably
vulgar bird, the California Condor became extinct because of its very poor
ability to reproduce (one egg from a mated female every two years), and
its propensity towards chewing on large road kill, before there were roads. The
stupid condor has no sense of smell, so it tends to ignore bird and reptile
carcasses. Habitat has made things tough for the condor, so bringing back the
massive herds of Bison and elimination of humans would be its best hope. The
condor does not have the ability to reproduce until the age of six, so it was
Mother Nature who actually condemned this vulture to extinction, throwing in
the dirty trick of climate changes associated with the end of the last glacial
period and the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.

Wind
turbines and power lines have done the condor no favors, either. In the eternal
nature's way of “survival of the fittest,” the nasty 'defecating on its own
legs to get comfy' condor ranks as one of the least fit. As for hunting, the
condor is a too cute and backhanded way of just attacking hunting. Lead has a
very high level of molecular cohesiveness and modern jacketed lead bullets blow
through big game like butter. For a condor to sicken itself on one of my bullets,
it would have to learn how to use a shovel and start digging for lead a very
long way from the kill site. I mention this not because Lily's concern is
insincere, I don't believe it is. However, the human experience is still
contradictory, for all of us, perhaps the reason Lily apparently expressed no
written concern about the condition or positioning of the entrails of her Bull
elk, or the bullet she personally selected to use.

Midway
through the book, about page 198, Lily ponders if it is wrong to kill animals.
I think I can help with that one: no, it isn't. Animals have always killed
animals, nature kills animals, weather kills animals, and Bambi kills and
injures humans. The most dangerous animal to man in North America is indeed
deer. A pest is not a pest until we label it as such. Pesticides choose winners
and losers, but a pest is no less of an animal because we call it a pest. We
control pests because we want to feed ourselves, to grow food, and do not want
the disease of vermin to sicken or kill our loved ones or ourselves. The Black
Death was one of the most devastating events in human history, occurring from
1348-1350. It killed 45-50 percent of the population of Europe, with the cause
(at the time) thought to be “bad air.” Apparently, it was the oriental
rat flea that spread the bubonic plague, taking some 150 years for Europe to
recover to its pre-plague population levels. Would you kill fleas and rats to
save your family? Likewise, would you not hunt and raise animals to prevent
starvation? Prior to her next book, I hope Lily ponders the necessity of
fighting elective wars, and wonder where environmentalists were during Vietnam,
Iraq, Afghanistan . . . and the ethics of the cruise missile. It is a matter of
prioritizing things. If we truly wished to save songbirds and doves today, as a
society, the most effective method would be to simply ban all cat ownership.

I'm proud
to be a hunter. The true hunter is closer to nature than any other, the true
hunter puts in far more than he or she takes. The true hunter cares more about
healthy game populations than any other group and pays to preserve them for
future generations. Without Theodore Roosevelt and John Olin, our heritage
would now largely be lost. Wildlife is a renewable resource, after all. What
Lily got perfectly right is the seriousness with which a hunter pursues his
game, and the gratitude that flows from the experience. Gratitude for the
opportunity, gratitude for the experience, gratitude and respect towards the
game itself. Respect that takes the form of hunting only what we are sure will
be utilized and taking game as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Hunting
has always left a very light environmental footprint, less every few years . .
. for there are markedly less hunters every few years. As far as not hunting,
to not hunt is largely to sleepwalk through life, something like looking at the
party through the window. Hunting is not at all about death. Quite the
contrary, it is a celebration of life and nature. It enriches the soul.

Admittedly
this is more commentary than book review; but I'd like to finish up on the note
with which this was started. Lily Raff McCaulou writes with integrity, honesty,
and passion. I breezed through her 303 page memoir in one evening and
thoroughly enjoyed it. I believe most folks will, not because it feeds you just
more of what you might already think or have been told to believe. There is no
growing or learning, no stimulation of mind or spirit by reading the same old
mindless mantras.

Lily's journey
is a worthy one; it is a story that will make you think, question, ponder, and
inspire you to learn more. It asks the reader to think and reason: in so doing
you'll be more understanding of divergent points of view and perhaps take the
time to ask yourself why it is you think about animals and hunting in the way
that you do. The world has always been analog, not digital, with few absolutes.
Lily Raff McCaulou has given of herself most generously in Call of the Mild,
her first book, and I'm grateful for her efforts. And, I'm looking forward to
her next book as well.

You can
get your own copy of Call of the Mild: Learning to
Hunt my Own Dinner most anywhere, including Amazon, etc., both
hardcover (as I did) or in electronic form.